Category: Sections

By Maria Saporta

Just one day after MARTA’s new general manager, Keith Parker, came on board, there was a major shake up in the top ranks of the organization.

A memo was sent Dec. 11 to all MARTA employees announcing that Parker had accepted the resignations of Dwight Ferrell, MARTA’s deputy general manager; and Theodore Basta, chief of business support services. Their resignations were effective immediately.

The memo stated that their resignations were due to a “planned restructuring of the Authority’s organizational structure.”

By Maria Saporta

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk came to Atlanta for a meeting Tuesday afternoon with business leaders at the Metro Atlanta Chamber hoping to galvanize support for a bi-partisan solution to prevent the nation falling off the fiscal cliff by the end of the year.

But it was the comments that the former mayor of Dallas said about Atlanta that really captured the attention of the business leaders.

Kirk was the first black mayor of Dallas, but in reality he should have been the fifth. “We exported all of our talent,” Kirk said.

By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank plans to hire the world’s top architects to construct a new $1 billion stadium for the Falcons.

On Monday, Blank shared with Atlanta Business Chronicle his optimism for the project, which that day passed its first benchmark with the approval of the business terms for the new stadium. While it’s a non-binding agreement, it sets the framework for a deal to come together.

A request for qualifications to pick an architect was sent out Monday afternoon, said Rich McKay, president and CEO of the Falcons. It will take about 60 days to select an architect, he said. Click here to see a copy of the bid.

By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk

The Atlanta Falcons and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority have agreed to the terms of a business deal to build a new retractable roof stadium.

The GWCCA board approved the non-binding business terms in a special called meeting Monday morning.

In a press briefing before the board meeting, officials from the GWCCA and the Atlanta Falcons explained that the agreement calls for the state convention center to own the building, but for the football team to assume all operations and receive all revenues during the 30-year term of the business deal.

By Maria Saporta

President Barack Obama should make the environment and climate change a top priority during his second term in office.

That was the advice of former President Jimmy Carter during a panel discussion Friday night at the annual Captain Planet Foundation’s Benefit Gala at the Georgia Aquarium. The foundation was started 21 years ago by Ted Turner, when he was leading Turner Broadcasting System, and Barbara Pyle, who was in charge of environmental programming for the cable television company.

By Maria Saporta

Georgia has made a giant leap in the area of solar energy in just the last couple of years — progress that could rank Georgia as high as 4th among the 50 states within three years in terms of how much solar contributes to its overall energy portfolio.

“There is more solar out there in Georgia than many people think,” said John Sibley, a senior policy advisor for Southface who moderated the Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable program on solar energy on Friday morning. “We would be right behind New Jersey, and Georgia would be No. 4, if it were all on line today.”

Southface has documented how much solar activity is underway in the state through the new website: GeorgiaEnergyData.org. Sibley said that the state has about three times more solar energy than what is included in national databases.

By Maria Saporta

The “2013 “Salute to Greatness” dinner — the biggest annual fundraising event for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change — will be held on Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency Hotel — honoring two men from different parts of the world.

One award will honor Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is known as the “father of microcredit.” As the founder of the Gameen Bank, Yunus has helped transform impoverished communities through enlightened business practices. Yunus, who was born in what is now known as Bangladesh, has visited Atlanta several times in the past few years, expressing interest in starting a Gameen Bank in Atlanta.

The other award will honor Daniel P. Amos, the chairman and CEO of Aflac Inc., which is based in Columbus, Ga.

By Maria Saporta

Georgia’s own — Mark McDonald — has been elected chair of the National Trust Partners Network, and he will serve as an ex-officio member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s board.

McDonald has been president and CEO of the Georgia Trust since 2008.

According to a release from the Georgia Trust, the Partners Network includes more than 120 state, regional, and local nonprofit organizations, representing the top-tier preservation organizations in the country.

By Maria Saporta

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed are working together for the good of the Atlanta region and the state — both leaders affirmed at the Rotary Club of Atlanta lunch program Monday.

It was the first time that Rotary has brought together the governor and the mayor for a conversation about the future of Georgia and Atlanta as well as the ways that the two leaders can collaborate.

From the recent ground-breaking of the Porsche’s North American headquarters to their joint efforts to get federal support for the deepening of the Port of Savannah, both leaders spoke of the value of having a good relationship between the state and its capital city.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta-based CNN Worldwide will be veering back toward its journalistic roots with the naming of Jeff Zucker, the former president of NBCUniversal, as its new president.

But one major difference is that for the first time ever the president of CNN will not be based in Atlanta.

Ever since the network was launched more than three decades ago, Atlanta has been the center of gravity for the news organization. But in the past decade, more and more of CNN’s programming and talent are being broadcast out of New York and Washington, D.C.

By Maria Saporta

Former Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard will serve as the interim executive director of AID Atlanta, a 30-year-old nonprofit that has been a national leader in helping people with AIDS and HIV.

The AID Atlanta board of directors said in a release that it “is thrilled” to announce that Woolard was coming on board.

“She brings extensive non-profit executive management expertise as well as a broad knowledge of the city’s corporate and civic leadership,” the release stated. “She will continue to maintain the client base at her public affairs company while she leads the organization in its 30th year.”

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, November 23, 2012

The Atlanta Police Foundation is launching an $8.1 million, three-year campaign to continue improving public safety in the city.

The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation has made the lead $1 million gift to that campaign. “The Woodruff Foundation has been our biggest supporter,” said Dave Wilkinson, president and CEO of the Atlanta Police Foundation.

The foundation was started in 2003 as a way to bolster the city of Atlanta’s public safety efforts.

By Maria Saporta

A former employee at the Woodruff Arts Center is thought to defrauded the cultural institution out of $1.438 million over the past five years through false invoices.

The leadership of WAC disclosed Tuesday morning that it has been conducting a internal investigation with outside forensic accounting experts over the past three weeks to determine the extent of the fraud.

The case has been turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta and Georgia dominate in the field of credit card and debit card payments.

Paul Garcia, CEO of Atlanta-based Global Payments, told members of the Rotary Club of Atlanta Monday that 70 percent of all credit and debit transactions that occur in the United States are handled by companies based in Georgia — primarily in metro Atlanta.

Garcia then went on to list some of the major players based in Georgia — First Data, Elavon, TSYS (Total Systems), NCR and of course, Global Payments.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed vowed to take an active role in the recruitment of a new superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools should he be re-elected in 2013.

Meanwhile, the mayor endorsed the idea of extending the contract of current Superintendent Erroll Davis for another two years. The Atlanta Board of Education currently considering whether to extend that contract.

“I happen to believe that Erroll Davis is the right guy to lead us for the next two years,” Reed said during a luncheon speech at the Commerce Club on Tuesday.